The public response
The Sirens and Ulysses provoked an extreme public reaction when it was exhibited in 1837. People either loved it or loathed it. Here are some of the comments they made. Nearly 200 years later, the picture still creates a stir. You can read the comments of the twenty first century audience here.
'The Syrens'...is a disgusting combination of voluptuousness and loathsome putridity - glowing in colour and wonderful in execution but conceived in the worst possible taste.
Spectator, 6 May 1837
The composition of this picture is fine and the painting beautiful, but the subject cannot fail of producing the most unpleasant feelings... it is to be hoped that there are few who would nauseate their friends by placing it in their galleries.
Observer, 4 June 1837
An historical work of the first class... we are surprised to hear exceptions taken to the subject of the work as there are certainly few passages in Homer, or any other author, to which the talents of the painter or sculptor could be more legitimately addressed.
Gentleman's Magazine, June 1837
Even the partial nudities... outraged the modesty of many. "Fast" young men, pointing to a bare-bosomed Siren, would exclaim, "How disgusting!" Ladies... could scarcely be persuaded to turn their heads in the direction of the Picture.
Alexander Gilchrist Life of William Etty, 1855
And let us feel as we may the repulsiveness of its charnel-house of a foreground, there is a grand and noble largeness in the work.
Handbook to the Gallery of British Paintings in the Art Treasures Exhibition, 1857
